Firebacks

Description: Rectangular; plain plate with shield, supporters, ducal coronet, motto and garter of the Duke of Dorset: Quarterly, Or and gules, a bend vair.

Notes: Almost certainly the arms of Lionel Sackville KG (1688-1765), created first duke of Dorset in 1720; many different firebacks exist, all with precisely the same armorial stamp.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: [around shield] HONY SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE / [on motto scroll] AUT NUNQUAM TENTES, AUT PERFICE

Arms: Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset

Description: Rectangular; plain plate with shield, supporters, ducal coronet, motto and garter of the Duke of Dorset: Quarterly, Or and gules, a bend vair.

Notes: Almost certainly the arms of Lionel Sackville KG (1688-1765), created first duke of Dorset in 1720; many different firebacks exist, all with precisely the same armorial stamp.

Inscription: HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE / AUT NUNQUAM TENTES, AUT PERFICE [Either do not attempt, or complete]

Arms: Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset

Description: Arched rectangular shaped; astragal edging (top and sides); mainly symmetrical vine arrangement, emerging from a vase, some fronds ending in an eagle’s head, other in leaves; at top of arch, initials ‘HB’ split by date (reversed) with an additional ‘I’; below, initials ‘AIS’ (reversed).

Notes: Two planklines; ‘HB’ refers to Henry Bell, who acquired Rake Manor, Witley, in 1592. ‘AIS’ refers to Anthony Smith, his nephew and heir, and his wife, Joan (née Hore); the form of the date is confused by the addition of an ‘I’, and the somewhat clumsy arrangement of the inscription suggests that it was added to the otherwise foliate pattern priot to casting. The letter 'H' seems to belong to a different character set

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: H I0361B / AIS

Description: Rectangular shape; ogee moulded edging (top and sides); crowned falcon stamp repeated three times and spaced evenly along the top; separated initials close inside outer falcon stamps; two andiron slots.

Notes: The stamp, which was originally a badge of Queen Anne Boleyn, and first used in the letters patent of her Marquisate of Pembroke, comprises a falcon with a crown upon its head and holding a sceptre, standing upon a tree stump, from which extends a sprig of red and white roses. The badge was later adopted by Queen Elizabeth I. The probability must exist that the initials TB relate to a member of the Boleyn family.

Inscription: T B

Description: Rectangular shape; twisted rope edging (top and sides); from top: rose and crown within a shield stamped eight times horizontally; rectangular stamp with a griffin passant repeated seven times horizontally; rose and crown within a shield stamped eight times horizontally.

Notes: Five other firebacks bearing these stamps are known: two are in Hastings, and one, dated 1569, is at Hadlow Down, Sussex. The locations of the other two, formerly in Ipswich and Guildford, are not known. Two excrescences on the lower part of the fireback show where the iron was poured, displacing the sand in the mould. Woolley & Wallis auction, Salisbury, 4 Apr 2023, lot 46 (£1,400).

Description: Rectangular shape; cyma recta moulded edging (top and sides); top centre, rose and crown; top right, date; top left, initials, DI (with D reversed); small rose stamp between initials and rose/crown; concentric, rope-patterned roundel below date and below initials, with fleur-de-lys separating each from the rose/crown; below, uneven alternating line of three fleurs and two small rose stamps.

Notes: One of a series of firebacks cast between the 1670s and 1690s bearing small, simple stamps, initials and dates; the style of rose and crown is similar to that used in gun founding in the Tudor period, suggesting that the furnace that was the source of this fireback may have been used for that purpose. Alleged to have been formally at Rowfant House, Worth, Sussex.

Inscription: D [reversed] I 1685

Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto edging; armorial; Stuart English royal arms within a circular garter; crown, motto and supporters (crowned lion and unicorn); initials separated by cro wn; date - 1643 - inserted outside Garter.

Notes: A widely copied fireback with the date, 1643, probably spurious, inserted when copied. An earlier casting without the date is no. 350.

Inscription: C R / 1 6 / HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE / 4 3 / DIEU ET MON DROIT

Arms: English Stuart royal

Description: Rectangular; no edging; quasi-symmetrical arrangement of crosses and buckle outlines: a cross at each corner and one to right of middle, three buckles along the top and three buckles in triad, level with, and below, the central cross; two horizontal plank lines; lower left part of back missing due to wear and corrosion. The fireback has a small accumulation of iron slag on the reverse side, probably caused by a failure, by the founder, to tap off all the slag from the furnace hearth before casting.

Notes: The buckles, which could have been stamped using a branding iron, suggest a connection with the Pelham family. This is the fireback noted in 1861 at Warbleton Priory, Sussex, which the Pelhams endowed in 1413; the priory was dissolved in 1535 suggesting that the fireback dates from before then. The excrescence, left of centre, on the surface of the fireback was probably caused by molten iron being poured from a ladle into the sand mould and displacing some of the sand.

Description: Arched rectangular central panel, astragal and fillet edge, pictorial, Hercules, sword in hand, preparing to slay the Hydra; Arched rectangular border, fillet edge, ivy leaves and tendrils, monogram at bottom; swirled foliage on top.

Notes: The wooden pattern for this fireback (no. 927), formerly in the custody of William Hobday (d. 1883), last surviving ironworker at Ashburnham furnace, was given to the Sussex Archaeological Society by the Revd. J. Bickersteth. The fireback was previously at a house at Hooe, East Sussex.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: TAN

Description: Canted rectangular shape; twisted rope edging formed of six lengths of 23cm (top and sides); top centre, rectangular panel with cavetto-moulded edging (left side missing) enclosing date between initials CT, all interposed with dots; below, eight shields of Ayloffe impaling Sulyard in three rows (3-2-3); Ayloffe: sable, a lion rampant Or, collared gules, between three crosses formy of the second; Sulyard: argent, a chevron gules between three pheons inverted sable.

Notes: William Ayloffe (c1535-1584) of Hornchurch, Essex, Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench, married (c1560) Jane, dau. of Sir Eustace Sulyard, of Runwell, Essex. The initials 'CT' are likely to be those of Charles Tyler, a founder whose working life and that of his family have strong parallels with the occurrence of these firebacks. The excrescence affecting the left shield in the middle row and the blemish left of the middle shield in the top row are the result of inexpert ladling of the iron during casting. Previously at Smarden, Kent.

Inscription: C.1.6.1.2.T

Arms: Ayloffe impaling Sulyard (William Ayloffe of Bretons, Hornchurch)